In 2015, after another one of my surgeries, I was peering through the family photo albums, especially at night when Ruthie was away at work. I wrote this poem I entitled, “Portraiture.” Here is a little bit of that poem.
PORTRAITURE
Have you ever looked into
the eyes of a portraiture?
In these wells of the soul
lay the expressive depthso
of the human spirit,
the pain and sorrow,t
the hopes and dreams,
the love and the joy,
and peace and reconciliation.
On the picture boards
at wakes and funerals,
I peer into the eyes of
the deceased, trying to
catch a glimpse of what
they were thinking, what
they were feeling at the
various times of their lives
portrayed from infancy
through their school years,f
from courtship to weddings,
from young parenthood
to adolescent parenthood
to grandparenthood.
Generally late at night
when you are off to work,
I love to pour through
my photographs of you,
slowly, carefully savoring
the intricate pattern of
shading, highlighting
your cheeks, your smile,
and most especially,
your eyes,
your dark brown eyes,
in whose mysterious depths
resides the beautiful
portraiture of God.
(c) 2015, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
In our church spaces we often have the “official photo album” of Church saints on display in the stainglass windows and statuary. As we look at our “Church family”, their images remind us of who they were when alive and much of what they endured in life. It is not often the “great accomplishments” of their lives we remember, but how they lived their faith in the everyday small stuff of life that intimately connects their lives to ours.
We have a less official photo album of the saints of the Church in our photo albums at home. I encourage you to take the time to view the family saints portrayed in your photo albums, on your computer, or on some digital cloud and look into the eyes of your family saints. Their lives are more intimately connected to ours than those of our official saints. If you gaze into the depths of their eyes, you will discover, as I did that night as I looked at a portraiture of Ruth, the beautiful mysterious portrait of God gazing back at you. At every celebration of the Mass, listen to the prayers immediately following the Consecration, and you will hear that ALL the saints of the Church, including your deceased loved ones, are remembered in the Eucharistic prayer. Celebrate the saints of your life not only on this All Saints Day but every day of your life. When we pass from this life into the next, they will be there welcoming us home.
